is very large and very accurate, for on almost any subject of general interest, he is ready, at a moment's warning, to give you the general view and the minute details; but education, education for all, is the topic he loves best, and he can give one clearer views of its importance in fifteen minutes' talking, than can be obtained from reading a dozen respectable essays on the subject. We should rather listen to his talk, than any one whom we have ever heard lecture on education. Any one visiting Washington may know him without the trouble of 'pointing out.' He is the tall, straight, thin gentleman, with the clean face, white hair, gold-rimmed spectacles, black clothes, and firm, quick motions." REV. DOCTOR BOARDMAN. THE Rev. Dr. Boardman preaches in a neat and beautiful church in Walnut street, Philadelphia; the building will seat about a thousand persons, has galleries on three sides, a handsome pulpit, trimmed with red silk velvet, pews wide, wellcushioned and accessible. The only opportunity I had to hear the celebrated preacher and author who has occupied. for fifteen years, his present post of honor and duty and responsibility, was on my home return from Washington, when he delivered one of his inimitable and eloquent lectures to the merchants of Philadelphia. Some of the solid men of the Quaker city were present. The house, a spacious one, was so crowded it was with difficulty the preacher wedged his way to the pulpit. Scores went away, unable to obtain even a standee-good evidence that the Doctor " wears well," that he has not " run out," that he is still popular. He read the opening hymn in a clear, distinct, manly voice. The hymn was well sung by a thoroughly disciplined choir. Good singing is one of the most attractive and delightful features of public worship-it is the language of heaven-the dialect of angels. It seems to give us "the sense of wings" on which we float sky-ward. Whoever heard of a vile deed being done immediately after singing a sacred song? Here the congregation joins with the choir in singing; this is surely much better than being happy by proxy. After singing, the preacher read a chapter giving Solomon's opinion of a virtuous woman. The prayer which followed was fervid, honest, and impressive. The text was from the writings of Solomon, "many women have done virtuously," an eloquent extract from the Merchant's Magazine followed; it was written by a lady who complains of her lord because of his neglect. The speaker regrets that he cannot deny the grave imputations brought against merchants who allow themselves to be so submerged in business they seem to forget their families. The Rev. But I intend to sketch persons and not sermons. Doctor Boardman has a good voice. It is mellow, with a gentle grate and quaver in it, which seems to leave his peculiar mark on the word he utters. His gesticulation is graceful, natural, and emphatic. The peculiar manner in which he "fixes" his eyes upon his hearers and the way in which his lips come together, when he has concluded a sentence, (he desires to be pondered and remembered,) and the manner in which he throws his face forward, as he does occasionally, gives the idea that his words are arrows from a shaft stronger than steel, that hit the heart of the appreciating hearer. His matter is solid not heavy, sprightly not light, practical not mechanical, classical not cobwebish, it is philosophical, argumentative, and scriptural. Such matter as any sensible man may hear day after day, week after week, month after month, after year, and never suffer a surfeit, or starve for lack of year spiritual food. There is no need of making points to keep up the interest, no need of his using spice to sharpen the appetite. When he is severe his sarcasm cuts like a lancet. He is not a subtle metaphysician, not a prating pedant not a noisy bunkum declaimer. He has a strong clear intellect, and common sense of that uncommon quality which is closely allied to genius. He is well educated, and what he knows he knows thoroughly, and has complete mastery of the stock of wisdom always on hand. His language is now strong, now soft, now bold, now beautiful. His sarcasm is refined, compact, steeped in humor, and spiced with irony. He has many brilliant qualities, often breaking forth in bursts of kindling magnificence. He is generally moderate, sometimes vehement, always majestic, commanding the attention, impressing the impartial, and overawing the sceptical. His sermons are his own, not copies, not echoes, not shadows, but real transcripts of his own heart and brain; shining here and there with lucidus ordo. His sentences are so perfectly finished they are fit for the reviewer as they fall from his lips. He was rather uncivil to the ladies who lead the Woman's Rights party, declaring they were Amazonians quarreling with Providence for creating them women instead of creating them men. In person he is rather tall, well formed, has dark brown hair, carelessly pushed back from a noble, prominent forehead; has an oval face, blue eyes (I think), straight nose, thin, may I say literary, lips, dresses in a most unministerial manner, with a black neck tie in place of the white cravat. He is upwards of forty years of age. Long life to him and may he |